Just as filling potholes can only temporarily hide the fact that a road is crumbling, so does our refusal to recognize that government's unprecedented experiment with Keynesian stimulus — known to the uninitiated masses as borrowing and spending on a breathtaking scale — has likely just about run its course.

Being a mother is one of the biggest motivating factors for me to stand up and run for Congress. I proudly watched my son become an Army Ranger, and my daughter become a middle school teacher, and was inspired by both. I think all parents reading this will understand what I mean when I say I am in awe of who my children have become.

Stakeholders in Champaign and Vermilion County have worked to inform their neighbors about the impacts of Sunrise Coal's proposed Bulldog coal mine. Now they are reaching out to update a more distant group: Sunrise Coal's investors.

Proposed annexations involve property taxes, which are always controversial. Annexation hearings recently conducted by the MTD Board of Trustees, and a recent News-Gazette editorial, remind us of this general truth.